Ok I'm a little confused, retail opens in Auckland next week for everybody but when we enter the traffic light system it will only he open to people who are double vaxxed?
It doesnt really make any sense… or am I missing something?
The government is missing a fit for purpose functioning vaccination certification system – they've only had many many months to have something up and running, no doubt those responsible for it's implementation are still consulting about the name of system before getting down to actually creating it.
We can only hope when it does arrive it is fit for purpose.
It is amazing how many self acclaimed experts have all of tomorrows problems solved and remedied as of yesterday when they didn't even know about the problem in the first place.
Anyone who thinks dealing with problems in a pandemic will go like clockwork is bonkers.
Change like the wind, what can come out of a person's mouth. The weather forecast can be hard to predict and the weather is a lot more stable than a pandemic with new variants.
But it's not about 'them' surprising us it's about the public surprising us by accepting whatever eventuates. It coming from Ardern and her government which means it automatically will not be accepted by many. It will be seen to be the worst solution possible, not fit for purpose, flawed, whatever bag of negativity you want to dip into.
They haven't got that far. They are still squabbling over which minority groups must be represented on the committee and who are the people to represent them.
Clearly you are an expert, Alwyn. Why do you think it needs a committee with representatives? So what sort of certificate would you recommend? Would it be paper, or electronic, or a plastic card? Or a choice of any of those? What expiry Date should it use? How would you prevent fraud? Does it need photo-ID? How would you issue it? How would you handle lost or stolen cards? Would you expect New Zealanders to pay for a certificate – if so how much is reasonable? Should children be required to have a certificate? If a retailer or company puts up a notice saying that all front line staff are fully vaccinated, how do I know that can be trusted? What about the new employee that day, or the back room worker who walks through the store? How would you deal with people entering New Zealand? Are you the "right" person to ask? We are all replying on you to have all the answers today – and it would be helpful if all your decisions have cross party support . . ..
Those are all, with the exclusion of the first one, sensible questions. The first one "Why do you think it needs a committee with representatives?" on the other hand is not, and is NOT one that I am advocating.
I have in the past been on various committees given the job of coming up with technical standards. You would be truly amazed, and I think horrified, at how many started out with long discussions on whether the group of people being chosen showed the right mix of gender, and iwi, to meet some hypothetical pattern. Knowledge of the topic being considered didn't seem to be relevant.
I don't have to bother with such things anymore, thank Gaia.
@ Higherstandard (1.1) … for those of us who are fully vaccinated, our vaccination status is recorded on our Covid QR tracer app, which can be located and confirmed through the dashboard My Covid Record, which needs to be signed in for access. For those who do not have the app, then their card should be enough evidence of vaccination status.
I can't see the reason to need another means of certification.
Yes you are missing something – comprehension skills. You will need to be double vaccinated to enter hospitality and entertainment centres, but you will not need to show your vaccination certificate to enter retail stores unless the proprietary decide to restrict entry only to double vaccinated for the protection of their staff.
Where we can go at Red
Public facilities — open with up to 100 people, based on 1 metre distancing.
Retail — open with capacity limits based on 1 metre distancing.
Workplaces — working from home encouraged.
ECEs, schools, and kura are open with public health measures.
Specified outdoor community events — allowed with capacity limits.
As I understand it from Macro, thats correct once we get to traffic lights then businesses will be able to choose if the will allow unvaxxed people inside.
Vac Certificates will apply at all levels, as Jacinda outlined quite clearly, when she introduced the Framework system at the initial press briefing. The "Traffic Light" Framework, will come into play when all DHBs have a 90% level of eligible people vaccinated. Initially the part of the country currently at level 2 Delta will move to Orange. Auckland will move to Red before the rest of the country, when all 3 DHBs in the Auckland city reach 90% of eligible people vaccinated. The link I provided above gives all the details for each colour. The colour Red applies when there is community transmission within a particular area. This, as the Govt is explaining, is no longer an elimination strategy, but a suppression strategy. As we have found out, elimination of the delta variant is far too difficult once it has gotten into the community. The need for very high levels of vaccination, along with public health measures, is the best means of mitigation.
As routine as shopping hours are displayed, a notice needs to be at the entrance of every business about what the compliance is to enter.
Adapting will be easier for the vaccinated than the unvaccinated, (those with a medical exemption differ to the unvaccinated group). Consideration for the staff's health and welfare on the premises is what is required.
It makes perfect sense if you're not a one-dimensional purist. Level 3 stage 2 (which allows some retail) is a transitional concession to Auckland's angst and fatigue. The traffic light system is a long-term framework for next year. If they are a bit contradictory, who gives a f*ck?
Commentators who haven't had to make god awful decisions affecting lots of people and with only bad options on the table need to keep quiet.
Many people in Auckland are now simply ignoring the steps and rules. There have been several family gathering that I know of, and a walk down to Mission Bay, Okahu Bay will confirm many are treating it as the old level one.
Would a Green Party women not show her affiliation with the Party atm, there are no elections so why would they throw their support behind Labour? Could it be that the Greens may be actually losing women and would the Self ID bill part of the reason that is leading that exodus? I think that the Green seem to be more a Standard bearer for that bill then the actual government. Personally i always thought that women were the majority support for the Green Party.
best way to know that is to compare older RM polls and see what the sex rates were pre-Ardern. I'm guessing that in the exodus of voters from Green to Labour in 2017, the balance of male/female changed as well.
I doubt that most women in NZ are aware of the law changes and what they mean. It's not like they were asked.I’d be surprised if that is affecting a poll of 1000 people.
Yes AB ,there are plenty of right wing nutbars "quadrupling down" out there now because they can't stand having female leaders of both main parties; so they flock to Rimmer.
For a government that is having to control people's lives to this extent for this long it is more of a surprise that they haven't lost more, sooner.
I expect some polling gain after Christmas as shopping and family re-unifications take place.
But 2022 and 2023 look pretty tough for a potential third term. At the moment they are putting simply more controls on society for not a whole bunch of fun or upside:
– water regulation
– carbon budgets and programmes across government
– new RMA legislation
– pushing the health amalgamation
None of that makes me wee myself with happiness.
Labour will need to pull something big out of the 2022 budget to win the next election.
That's the reality of politics, the farmers revolt the 3 waters debacle now magnified with a change cancelling the opt out option has upset a lot of people.
Then the long lockdown and all the business sector ,anti vax protests,gangs and prostitutes breaking the team effort.gangs getting $ 2.5million to reform.
The left can't complain to much the govt has given the media plenty of ammunition.
While National haven't been able to land any big blows.The Media haven't been so dysfunctional.
The MSM have been bought by the current Government.
The National Party leader is uninspiring, to put it politely.
The ACT party have a genuinely interesting leader.
Mind you, at the same time in the 2014-2017 term the leading party (National) was on 49% and the second party (Labour) was on 28.5% in the equivalent poll my Roy Morgan. Now the numbers, for the 2 leading parties don't look quite so bad for National do they?
Not a rogue poll (but it is Roy Morgan, and those of us who pay attention have treated the good with the bad with consistent caution – no memory hole here).
But the poll doesn't say what you think it does. As always, the best measure is "right direction/wrong direction". At a time when the opinion-churners are declaring NZ to be a basket case, the people disagree.
In supposedly a "bad poll", there is still a gap of 48-38 in right vs wrong direction. In Australia, it is in negative territory, hence the ALP lead. Scott Morrison hasn't had Ardern's ratings – ever.
Similar Covid problems, different responses. NZ doing much better. According to the people, not the columnists.
People like Alanna Ratna are as much a risk to society as covid.
"At a recent protest in Tauranga, a retired General Practitioner (GP) in Mount Maunganui named Alanna Ratna told the assembled that Jacinda Ardern was guilty of “crimes against humanity”.
“In Nuremberg, the punishment for crimes against humanity involved the gallows,” she said to loud cheers.
“We no longer have capital punishment in this country, but I suggest a good punishment would be a ball and chain around your ankle digging hard rock for the rest of your life.”
Later, on her Facebook page, Ratna went a step further, writing that Ardern “is going to get her own lethal injection when the International Criminal Court sits for Nuremberg two”.
I'm posting this again for those who are watching and seeking to inform themselves more about what is going on in conversations about self–id for gender and legislative, cultural and societal impact.
Language distortion and conflation plays a significant role in derailing discussion.
This post – by someone who has Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, is one of the best I have read in terms of research and clarity about the term 'Intersex' and how it is sometimes inappropriately and harmfully used:
It seems to me that this is an issue that ,on the face of it, is pitched as left v right but once you drill down into it the situation changes and its clearly something else
Strangely enough, one of my favourite people to talk with is a committed ACT voter, and conservative Christian – her husband was a pastor. Like me, she has a few Aspergers traits, so we enter discussions knowing the other person is unlikely to change their view to align with our own, but we can both listen to each other and come away with another perspective that informs our own. IRL I know her quite well, and see that we share a lot of values, just disagree on how to get there. That base relationship, gives a context to discussion that's often missing online.
That said, I did watch. And like many others, question my own use of left and right as a political term in situations, because so many people have different ideas of what this means.
It'll take longer to write than it took to watch, if I go through it piece by piece. But some of the language used made me take note. He is right about biological sex, but not necessarily about responsibilities and privilege accorded to both sexes. I'd say there are roles within cultures that are delegated according to sex, but the majority of cultures puts the power hierachies in the hands of men. The "privileges" he seems to infer, is the 'privilege' of women having men protect them from the violence of other men. Every person has the choice to step in (eg. woman on the train), men will probably be more successful and less likely to receive harm, but that doesn't mean the responsibility lies only with men. The qualification that the left brought about this inaction, means that everyone on the train would be left. But that's unlikely to be true. It's a difficult thing for many people to know how to intervene without causing escalation, and I think that stops quite a few from action unfortunately.
I have been in situations where men have jumped into existing fights after a split second decision making process that gives them the insight into which side to join. The fact that this was a women is by-the-by for me. His view is a bit too "pretty little head" for me to be comfortable with.
I also think his reference to New York devolving back to a city where people are unsafe – as in the 70s – ignores the valid stories of those who have experienced it as unsafe during the last 50 years. I'm sure there would be thousands who live a life in one of the world's biggest cities of terror and vulnerability. The anonymity and disconnect that are part and parcel of large swathes of cities, are the breeding grounds for exploitation and violence unfettered by social contracts.
I watched Chapelle to see what the concern was. Thought that it was not transphobic, but then the term as it is being used has little meaning – as Andrew Klavan points out. It does, however, hold a lot of power in terms of derailing discourse, making policies and legislation, so cannot be ignored.
I do believe there are some manipulators out there, who don't have the well-being of transgender people at the heart of their actions or activism but are utilising the zeitgeist to create power networks for themselves as individuals. I also believe that there are many transgender people that are really discomforted by those that state that biological sex is real and immutable. I think this feeling of compromised 'safety' is a natural result of a series of beliefs that constantly require unrelenting external validation to hold together. It's not a good place to be, and it is not a good place for policy and legislation to aim at providing.
He returns back to the 'protection' theme, but women have been pointing out these inconsistencies since they became aware of them, and Chapelle is reiterating points already made. Women have also been threatened, and cancelled and suffered consequences but he makes no reference to them.
His take that it is the left's idea to silence truth, can be applied with the same generalisation to some of the right and other topics. But they are both inaccurate, I think. Whether you see yourself as left or right, there are always some on your side that will take the opportunity to reduce things down to a simplistic explanation. And life and people are more complicated than that.
Of course, I wonder sometimes about those men (and women) that consider themselves left, and yet have remained silent or joined the chorus of those who use the #NoDebate stance to silence others. Unfortunately, I think within all points of the political spectrum there are personality types that are represented, and we are seeing the effects of a shallow approach to the issue stifling discussion on the left. I don't know why.
The Twitter terms that block users because of misgendering has been in place for while, and has silenced many. But he only brings up men in positions of power, and Twitter is the one that is making these social judgements and should be challenged. His point about the conflation of sex and gender identity – although he calls it gender and gender – matches my belief that confusion about language and its use is causing unreasonable situations.
His explanation of sex based roles throughout history would take too long to dissemble into relevance…… so moving on.
Agree with his reference to Judith Butler work, and the imposition of abstract on the concrete, and the use of obfuscating language to deny interrogation of ideas.
His expectation of quality from the journalists shown is much higher than mine, but it would benefit us all if media for consumption was at a higher standard than it currently is.
His focus on the individual connection to biological sex is a different perspective to mine. My awareness of my female sex is one that encompasses commonalities with other women. His conclusion is about power, and influence I think, and the inability to regulate excessive power in the hands of a few.
Overall, I am aware that many supposed conservatives are speaking out, but they also often miss a lot of the issues related to this. His take is simplistic and quite paternalistic – "the protection of women".
The concerns of many women's groups (and some transgender individuals) regarding the impact of legislative and policy changes seems to be much more nuanced and considered.
As an example of how much could be considered in terms of the social and cultural impact of badly drafted legislative change (NOT transgender existence or presence), one woman's rant to police when she was reported by her ex-husband, now transwoman, for transphobic hate:
Them: Erm…Well, we haven’t actually taken a statement. We just came to speak to you as we received a call about transphobic hate…
Me: Really. So, basically you have come here to harass a woman for daring to speak about the erosion of women as a social and political class then?
Them: No.
Me: So why is the opinion and perceived offence caused to a man more important than my opinion and offence at the removal of my rights.
I find it offensive that you would come to my home like this and frankly intimidate me like this into shutting up.
Has a crime actually been committed?
Them: Erm…
Look, this is a small town and people are offended…. <blah blah blah>
At this point I pretty much let rip…politely but firmly. Very very firmly.
I might have said:
They will need to build more prisons
Raged about men in prisons
Raged about men running rape-crisis centres
Raged about queer theory in school
Raged about illegal schools guidance that sees school compelled to keep a 4-year-old’s self-declared gender identity a secret from parents
Them: Oh, I read about that… I wondered…what is all that about…
Raged about online porn
Raged about girls missing school due to periods
Raged about girls not drinking all day to avoid going to the toilet
Raged about 1 rape per week in schools & 6/10 girls experienced/witnessed sexual assault by age 16
Raged about Women and Girls sport
Raged about Self-ID
Raged about the notion that Twans people are ‘vulnerable’ – murder figures confirm that it’s Women who remain vulnerable <gave them the actual figures Graham>
Raged about Women and girls having not a single safe space away from men. Not even rape victims who are not transphobic but traumatised.
Raged about the absolute brass neck of two police officers turning up at my door thinking they can silence women.
Raged about not being bloody transphobic in any feckin way.
Raged about having to fight this fight.
Raged about being removed as a political and biological class.
Raged about Lesbians having to accept ‘Ladydick'
Raged about Marion Miller.
Raged about academia.
Raged about lots of other shit I am too enraged about right now to remember.
Raged about harassment.
Raged about my body.
Them: Jeez, Look we are not allowed to have personal opinions… just doing our job… hear what you are saying…blah blah blah
Me: I think we all have a responsibility to think about what we are doing to people and why…. <kind of looked the female right in the eye> You owe it to your women and children to have an opinion on this. This is very dangerous… <that was for the man>
Raged about confused children
Raged about Gay children
Raged about Breast binders
Raged about drugs these children are taking (PB’s, Wrong-sex hormones)
Raged about consequences of the drugs… not good at all
Raged about grotesque surgeries
Raged about number of detransitioners
Raged about number of young women with catheters due to complications from surgery.
Raged about botched surgeries
Raged about breast amputations
Raged about penis removal
Raged about the indoctrination of children at school, on social media, tv, everywhere
Raged about the monetising of our children to fund an industry.
Raged about the state-sanctioned abuse of our children.
I am furious at our MP's for introducing legislation that has caused these legitimate concerns to be raised in other countries, and not taking the time to address those issues beforehand. They have knowingly created a similar situation in NZ, between groups that are most likely aligned in wanting people to be free to live lives without boundaries on safe personal expression.
Wow Molly. Thanks for the critique of the video. You raise some excellent points.
I am just relieved to find anyone who calls out the erasure of women.
I also read the article about the Scottish women. It is unbelievably scarry what is happening in Scotland. I fear once the hate speech laws come in GC women will be harrased by the police like this. And I believe that when the Conversion Therapy Bill passes it will be similar. Parents and counsellors (who want be protected in the Act will be visited by the police and intimidated in this way…..
Its bloody frightening. Either take you child to gender affirming medical treatment and use their pro-nouns or receive a visit from the police.
Yes. Only scrolling through after did I realise how long it was… my family tend to get themselves a cup of tea and a comfortable seat before they ask for my opinion.
The recording of a NCHI "non-crime hate incident" on your police record resulting from a complaint is unconscionable. This will show up in any police checks for employment, housing, volunteering etc although no crime has been shown to be committed.
These police records flowed from lawful speech. It is completely lawful to express the view that biological sex is unchangeable and it is equally lawful to support a woman’s right to abortion. It is not necessary to take sides to understand it is deeply worrying that the police categorised such commonly held opinions as hate incidents.
We live in a time when many people are quick to take offence, believing they have some right in law to be protected from it. They don’t. It’s a small step for such individuals to see any opposition to their world view as motivated by hate, rather than by, for example, ridicule. We grant such sensitive souls enormous power if they can virtually dictate the creation of police records against those whose views conflict with their own. This power has real-world consequences. We need hardly imagine what an HR manager would make of a job applicant with a police history of hate.
My take away on the article is it mostly affirms my ideas and mirrors whats happening in the activist trans community
Taking labels and applying them to oneself takes away from the people that actually have the condition
Like people saying they're gluten intolerant to be trendy which trivialises people with actual intolerances
It also makes me worry at the, seeming, explosion in the number of kids declaring they're trans and wanting sex change operations, is it the kids or is it the parents and the circles they move in
I liked what you wrote and it gave me, and others, food for thought
-it is the kids – puperty, growing up is hard. And for the girls i totally understand any girl that say wants to work in Stem or Tech and who decides that she can't be fucked with the inherent mysoginy and simply opts out via Trans and presents as man for the perceived advantages.
We should look at that as a society and ask ourselfs jus why Girls think that life as women is so miserable and so devoid of advantages as women that having a double masectomy and lifelong injections of testesterone is preferable.
-it is the parents – and in saying that we have now a bill that is being shoved through that can criminalize parents for not going with full affirmation should their kid declare themself trans. (See OZ).
– it is the parents – see the tragic story of a boy name Jazz Jennings who was transed by his parents at 18 month, was chemically castrated at age 10, then put on female hormones, then at barely 18 hat his 'neo vagina' fashioned out of his micro penis, this of course went all bad, and the kid has had three more ops down there (can you imagine the pain just to urinate and defecate), gained a hundred pounds, is highly depressed, but this it seems is better for the Mum and Dad then having a healthy son who may or may not present as gay, bisexual or heterosexual albeit a bit flamboyant and 'sassy'. TLC Channel. There is another kid, exactly the same, he is 9 going on to his chemical castration in seven miles boots.
– education system – any system that would cut out parents from how they deal with the child, how they would name him, his/her pronouns, etc in order to protect the child from the parents (wtf) is an environment that is grooming kids.
– online, it is very easy to be groomed into being transbaby by adults. It is as easy as is access to choke the women dead porn.
– watch tiktok if you have a good stomach
but don't worry, the Self ID bill will go through, and with it the clause about hate speech, and please feel free to check the link above from England where they now want a permanent records for people who have been apprehended for the non crime of opinionated speech.
Thanks PR. I thought she'd outlined her perspective well and provided great links for research and additional information.
The language distortion, in this case around 'intersex' is shown clearly as "Taking labels and applying them to oneself takes away from the people that actually have the condition".
Agree with Sabine on her responses to your questions.
The law in Scotland that initiated the police visit above was accompanied in 2019 by the release of this video:
(I have an ongoing disagreement with close friend with an English degree who finds it painful to listen to people who use swear words as adjectives or emphasis. As long as it's not used in a threatening or bullying manner it doesn't bother me.
My perspective is that some of the most horrific things you can hear are profanities without swear words:
"You are not to talk to your family again"
"I don't want you to go out with your friends anymore."
"This is our secret, and you can't tell anyone."…
Scottish Govt: "We believe in acceptance, and it’s time you accept that" has that same discord for me.)
I agree with you PR. I have drawn that paralell with the trend of people declaring themselves gluten intolerant (whereas people who have coeliacs diesease are). However the GI people don't demand that we change our language or impose things (although I was organising a conference once and the hotel automatically provided vegan, gluten free, lactose free food, without having to ask. What a hassle for them I thought). Being gluten free also doesn't involve permanantly changing your body, as what is happening to very young kids.
Kids are now taught at school you can be born in the wrong body and that there is such a thing as gender identity (and given a huge range of gender identities to label themselves as). We are teaching kids this stuff.
What I still can't get my head around is how quickly everything is happening or was it building up slowly and then like the pressure on a weak point something broke?
Ghostbusters 2016?
Twitter/Social media?
JK Rowling going from darling of the left to being on their most hated list?
It has happened in the blink of an eye almost PR. Others would probably be able to give you better info that I have on have on it..
I agree it isn't a left right thing. Many of the women who are GC are real lefties. The likes of Sandra Coney, Philida Bunkle, John Minto, Prue Hymen. The women in this group are the Grand Dames of Feminism in NZ.
I think there is a massive group think going on, education system, infiltration of parliament, the public service and the media. Its come from the universities and the gender theory one of the main proponants being Judith Butler an American Philosopher. Its also the no debate, your a transphobe if you disagree tactics used.
BTW if you have time, how did you become aware of this? No problem if you rather not say, but generally it flys below the radar.
I've read the Harry Potter books and seen the movies, her world building is incredible and just a joy to read (just ignore the implications of some of the spells and potions) so I found it odd when JK Rowling announced that Dumbledore was gay given that there was no hint to it in the books, that she said Hermione could be black which means she doesn't know her own stories and then she started going on about refugees and I thought "oh ok" shes gone full woke then the terf thing happened…and JK Rowling found out you can never satisfy the woke mob
Then Fallon Fox happened, I'll link to this guy to explain my issues with this because hes a trainer, manager, cornerman, promoter, announcer, referee and former fighter in China so he really knows his stuff (great voice as well):
I happen to be conservative so for my fix on political and cultural matters I follow sites like The Daily Wire, Steven Crowder (I also happen to follow Joe Rogan and Russell Brand) and due to that I got a recommendation for Blaire White so I clicked on her and thought yep shes coming at this issues at a different angle (took me two videos to realise shes trans)
Next would be the pop culture aspect and there I follow Nerdrotic, The Critical Drinker, Keri Smith, Just Some Guy and (thanks youtube algorithms) they've lead me to others which is why I sometimes bang on about just how bad movies and tv are these days
Finally just things happening all over the place that I simply don't understand and will never support like Don Brash being cancelled and free speech being curtailed for "safety", it sometimes feels like we're all in a race to see who can jump off the cliff first.
Find it interesting 0.02% of pop. I'm trying to find where someone was turning that into 2.0% of pop just over the last few days,do you recall,because that's a big differance.
As has been noted it's used alot,I don't do twitting,I'd rather do knitting,nah just a wee word play,(I do run sewing machines though) no someone inflating on MSM just days ago which pricked my ears as I had seen and understood 0.02 % to be fact.
Cheers but not that,It was a solid 2.%.(I've been alert to the 1.7-4 % for awhile )Haven't watched local TV news in a long while,I'm thinking RNZ or a link from here,maybe that BBC thing you put up last week.?
Quite funny. The word "Tova" gets a Pavlovian reaction almost as foamy as "Jacinda" (except it's from right, left and centre). So the comments can only be imagined.
Sadly, her new role will probably involve more ranting than reporting. It's a shame, because she was a good reporter … when reporting, not reckoning.
In Wellington the Mayor fronts it from the beginning, and sets out broad options for public consideration, and open up the housing intensification options right from the outset.
In Auckland, we don't have any idea of what Kainga Ora have in mind for several dozen urban hectares right along the line.
It's an open question whether the Auckland plan or the Wellington plan will happen fastest, or happen at all. Wellington's one simply integrates better with the city, from the outset.
Idiot from Steve Bannon's Counter Spin tries to disrupt PM's press conference. I hope this is accurately reported – he wasn't a random "heckler". Ironic that he was gently squashed with words, whereas in Trumpland he wouldn't get close without being shot.
So the rude American prick was a foreign agitator? Looking at the body count USrwnjs have wrought by politicising core parts of the pandemic response, it’s much more dangerous than other ideologies we monitor and restrict.
US 1 in 451
Italy 1 in 457
UK 1 in 479
Spain 1 in 540
France 1 in 566
Austria 1 in 789
Germany 1 in 874
Turkey 1 in 1, 211
Canada 1 in 1, 305
India 1 in 3, 008
Australia 1 in 15, 494
New Zealand 1 in 175, 607
"It restarted a few minutes later, with local Labour MP Kelvin Davis saying that the incident was “the reason vaccine rates were so low in Northland.”
Ardern said it was important to get the protests in perspective, as it was just two people. Northland MP Willow-Jean Prime corrected her to say it was four people.
Northland has one of the lowest vaccine rates in the country."
Northland needs people to be vaccinated. Northland drags behind the rest of the country. Northland is primed to have Covid rip into communities.
Northland has many uninformed people. Northland has the usual percentage of idiots and the plain 'dumb' people.
What Northland doesn't need is some smartarse spreading false information and playing on ignorance.
It seems that some epidemiologists and government have differing levels of concern over rising infection rates.
This may be because of the use of different models – one using total infection rates and the other separating out the young unlikely to need hospitalisation.
The other factor is that of timing – at what point does vaccination levels have an impact on the r rate. Both NSW and Victoria reduced their levels by increasing rate of vaccination (and NSW did this after easing their lock down).
Today, the House of Lords debates regulations to control the creation of police records on people who have committed no crimes. In the frame are “non-crime hate incidents” (NCHIs), exchanges reported to the police that the so-called victims perceive to have been motivated by hate, but where no laws have been broken.
NCHIs have consequences. They are not anonymised. They sit for ever against the names of the alleged perpetrators without any real investigation or right of appeal. Between 2014 and 2019 no fewer than 120,000 of these records were created.
The Americans involved have no right of appeal to being on the watch list permanently. That list has just grown exponentially since 9/11.
I am fairly sure the police here provide information for files of the SIS, despite no crimes being committed.
While it is a record kept by the UK police, it is not a past conviction that anyone has to disclose. And if this record is to become practice – for balance the UK police should also keep a record of the offended and identify which groups they belong to … .
do you really not understand the implication of a permanent police record and being on a watch list somewher. Besides this article is from England, not the US. Seriously dude.
The Police in England charges male rapists in skirts and wigs as women. I don't give them the benefit of doubt to keep good records.
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
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Ok I'm a little confused, retail opens in Auckland next week for everybody but when we enter the traffic light system it will only he open to people who are double vaxxed?
It doesnt really make any sense… or am I missing something?
You're not missing anything.
The government is missing a fit for purpose functioning vaccination certification system – they've only had many many months to have something up and running, no doubt those responsible for it's implementation are still consulting about the name of system before getting down to actually creating it.
We can only hope when it does arrive it is fit for purpose.
You know it will not be fit for purpose. According to some. Regardless of what eventuates it will be slammed. That is the environment we live in.
'Journalists' will be on their starting blocks waiting to grab the first person who has a complaint, a sob story to plaster in the headlines.
"Vaccert slammed," or damned, or scammed, or sham, or shame, or blame… It's coming, as sure as day follows night.
'You know it will not be fit for purpose. '
You never know they may surprise us.
It is amazing how many self acclaimed experts have all of tomorrows problems solved and remedied as of yesterday when they didn't even know about the problem in the first place.
Anyone who thinks dealing with problems in a pandemic will go like clockwork is bonkers.
Great comment.
Change like the wind, what can come out of a person's mouth. The weather forecast can be hard to predict and the weather is a lot more stable than a pandemic with new variants.
Totally Bonkers!!
But it's not about 'them' surprising us it's about the public surprising us by accepting whatever eventuates. It coming from Ardern and her government which means it automatically will not be accepted by many. It will be seen to be the worst solution possible, not fit for purpose, flawed, whatever bag of negativity you want to dip into.
Consulting over the name?
They haven't got that far. They are still squabbling over which minority groups must be represented on the committee and who are the people to represent them.
Clearly you are an expert, Alwyn. Why do you think it needs a committee with representatives? So what sort of certificate would you recommend? Would it be paper, or electronic, or a plastic card? Or a choice of any of those? What expiry Date should it use? How would you prevent fraud? Does it need photo-ID? How would you issue it? How would you handle lost or stolen cards? Would you expect New Zealanders to pay for a certificate – if so how much is reasonable? Should children be required to have a certificate? If a retailer or company puts up a notice saying that all front line staff are fully vaccinated, how do I know that can be trusted? What about the new employee that day, or the back room worker who walks through the store? How would you deal with people entering New Zealand? Are you the "right" person to ask? We are all replying on you to have all the answers today – and it would be helpful if all your decisions have cross party support . . ..
Those are all, with the exclusion of the first one, sensible questions. The first one "Why do you think it needs a committee with representatives?" on the other hand is not, and is NOT one that I am advocating.
I have in the past been on various committees given the job of coming up with technical standards. You would be truly amazed, and I think horrified, at how many started out with long discussions on whether the group of people being chosen showed the right mix of gender, and iwi, to meet some hypothetical pattern. Knowledge of the topic being considered didn't seem to be relevant.
I don't have to bother with such things anymore, thank Gaia.
@ Higherstandard (1.1) … for those of us who are fully vaccinated, our vaccination status is recorded on our Covid QR tracer app, which can be located and confirmed through the dashboard My Covid Record, which needs to be signed in for access. For those who do not have the app, then their card should be enough evidence of vaccination status.
I can't see the reason to need another means of certification.
Yes you are missing something – comprehension skills. You will need to be double vaccinated to enter hospitality and entertainment centres, but you will not need to show your vaccination certificate to enter retail stores unless the proprietary decide to restrict entry only to double vaccinated for the protection of their staff.
https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-levels-and-updates/covid-19-protection/
They are ACT and National voters Macro. You have to talk very slowly for comprehension to occur.
Thanks, no need to be a dick about it.
tbf, it's not that easy to understand.
Will vax certs only apply under red?
As I understand it from Macro, thats correct once we get to traffic lights then businesses will be able to choose if the will allow unvaxxed people inside.
But until we get there it seems not.
The traffic light system comes into force much later in November/December when the vaccination levels are up.
At the moment AKl is working through the steps in the old level 3.
https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-levels-and-updates/alert-level-3/alert-level-3-steps-1-to-3/
it does seem odd for the areas with community transmission.
Vac Certificates will apply at all levels, as Jacinda outlined quite clearly, when she introduced the Framework system at the initial press briefing. The "Traffic Light" Framework, will come into play when all DHBs have a 90% level of eligible people vaccinated. Initially the part of the country currently at level 2 Delta will move to Orange. Auckland will move to Red before the rest of the country, when all 3 DHBs in the Auckland city reach 90% of eligible people vaccinated. The link I provided above gives all the details for each colour. The colour Red applies when there is community transmission within a particular area. This, as the Govt is explaining, is no longer an elimination strategy, but a suppression strategy. As we have found out, elimination of the delta variant is far too difficult once it has gotten into the community. The need for very high levels of vaccination, along with public health measures, is the best means of mitigation.
As routine as shopping hours are displayed, a notice needs to be at the entrance of every business about what the compliance is to enter.
Adapting will be easier for the vaccinated than the unvaccinated, (those with a medical exemption differ to the unvaccinated group). Consideration for the staff's health and welfare on the premises is what is required.
It makes perfect sense if you're not a one-dimensional purist. Level 3 stage 2 (which allows some retail) is a transitional concession to Auckland's angst and fatigue. The traffic light system is a long-term framework for next year. If they are a bit contradictory, who gives a f*ck?
Commentators who haven't had to make god awful decisions affecting lots of people and with only bad options on the table need to keep quiet.
Many people in Auckland are now simply ignoring the steps and rules. There have been several family gathering that I know of, and a walk down to Mission Bay, Okahu Bay will confirm many are treating it as the old level one.
Labour down by 6% to 39.5% in the Roy Morgan Poll for October?
Must be a rogue poll I suppose.
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8849-nz-national-voting-intention-october-2021-202111010502
And the Greens up to 10.5% – left block on 51%, holding well despite all the negative blah blah blah and hard decisions made.
Must be a rogue poll I suppose.
That Greens gender split is big. Good their numbers are holding though.
Yep – plenty of blokes going right-wing nutbar under the pressure of Covid. Dangerous times.
of the people supporting the left (L/G), 8.5% of women support the Greens, and 13.5% of men support the Greens. That's actually quite shocking.
RM aren't the most reliable on individual polls, but still something to take notice of. Need to compare to RMs a few years ago…
can't find it. Just the more recent stuff, which is probably because Ardern is more popular with women.
Would a Green Party women not show her affiliation with the Party atm, there are no elections so why would they throw their support behind Labour? Could it be that the Greens may be actually losing women and would the Self ID bill part of the reason that is leading that exodus? I think that the Green seem to be more a Standard bearer for that bill then the actual government. Personally i always thought that women were the majority support for the Green Party.
quite possibly Sabine
best way to know that is to compare older RM polls and see what the sex rates were pre-Ardern. I'm guessing that in the exodus of voters from Green to Labour in 2017, the balance of male/female changed as well.
I doubt that most women in NZ are aware of the law changes and what they mean. It's not like they were asked.I’d be surprised if that is affecting a poll of 1000 people.
Yes AB ,there are plenty of right wing nutbars "quadrupling down" out there now because they can't stand having female leaders of both main parties; so they flock to Rimmer.
For a government that is having to control people's lives to this extent for this long it is more of a surprise that they haven't lost more, sooner.
I expect some polling gain after Christmas as shopping and family re-unifications take place.
But 2022 and 2023 look pretty tough for a potential third term. At the moment they are putting simply more controls on society for not a whole bunch of fun or upside:
– water regulation
– carbon budgets and programmes across government
– new RMA legislation
– pushing the health amalgamation
None of that makes me wee myself with happiness.
Labour will need to pull something big out of the 2022 budget to win the next election.
That's the reality of politics, the farmers revolt the 3 waters debacle now magnified with a change cancelling the opt out option has upset a lot of people.
Then the long lockdown and all the business sector ,anti vax protests,gangs and prostitutes breaking the team effort.gangs getting $ 2.5million to reform.
The left can't complain to much the govt has given the media plenty of ammunition.
While National haven't been able to land any big blows.The Media haven't been so dysfunctional.
Time to look at basic Labour values.
Build social Housing. Put up benefits for children. Plant native trees.
Those are the issues that will now help us continue to fight poverty and covid and climate change.
Alwyn. Why is the National Party only on 26%?
You want my opinion?
The MSM have been bought by the current Government.
The National Party leader is uninspiring, to put it politely.
The ACT party have a genuinely interesting leader.
Mind you, at the same time in the 2014-2017 term the leading party (National) was on 49% and the second party (Labour) was on 28.5% in the equivalent poll my Roy Morgan. Now the numbers, for the 2 leading parties don't look quite so bad for National do they?
Someone will have to roll Collins before the next General Election. She's been a disaster for National.
Who is Andrew Little.
An honest broker.
"the MSM have been bought by the govt"???
I heard George Soros was involved.
The MSM bought by the government is the local version of Trump's claim the election was stolen.
Once Collins is replaced the govt should be wary.No election is guaranteed in a democracy.
The recovery ,Child poverty,housing,climate change policy that is a tight rope walk.
Just watch the Right push the meme that Maori are running Labour. They will play the racist card.
Not a rogue poll (but it is Roy Morgan, and those of us who pay attention have treated the good with the bad with consistent caution – no memory hole here).
But the poll doesn't say what you think it does. As always, the best measure is "right direction/wrong direction". At a time when the opinion-churners are declaring NZ to be a basket case, the people disagree.
In supposedly a "bad poll", there is still a gap of 48-38 in right vs wrong direction. In Australia, it is in negative territory, hence the ALP lead. Scott Morrison hasn't had Ardern's ratings – ever.
Similar Covid problems, different responses. NZ doing much better. According to the people, not the columnists.
People like Alanna Ratna are as much a risk to society as covid.
"At a recent protest in Tauranga, a retired General Practitioner (GP) in Mount Maunganui named Alanna Ratna told the assembled that Jacinda Ardern was guilty of “crimes against humanity”.
“In Nuremberg, the punishment for crimes against humanity involved the gallows,” she said to loud cheers.
“We no longer have capital punishment in this country, but I suggest a good punishment would be a ball and chain around your ankle digging hard rock for the rest of your life.”
Later, on her Facebook page, Ratna went a step further, writing that Ardern “is going to get her own lethal injection when the International Criminal Court sits for Nuremberg two”.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300439357/covid19-nz-why-a-small-group-of-doctors-oppose-vaccination
Jeebus.
Thankfully most doctors in NZ are not so nuts
https://www.doctors-stand-up-for-vaccination.com/
Surely that is "threatening to kill" especially as she named the victim and the method? I hope she no longer has access to medicines!!
I'm posting this again for those who are watching and seeking to inform themselves more about what is going on in conversations about self–id for gender and legislative, cultural and societal impact.
Language distortion and conflation plays a significant role in derailing discussion.
This post – by someone who has Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, is one of the best I have read in terms of research and clarity about the term 'Intersex' and how it is sometimes inappropriately and harmfully used:
The Invention of Intersex
It's a long read, but a good one.
Hi Molly, I hope this is ok but if you have time I'd like your opinion on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvpd0tEWHfY&t=3s
To put it into context I'm conservative and Andrew Klavan is also conservative and is part of The Daily Wire.
He comes from an older and religious viewpoint but I'm curious as to what you think of his opinion
Thanks PR. I have no idea who this guy is, but mostly I agree with him.
In my mind you are doing the speaking up that none of the people on the subway did for the woman being punched. Thank you.
It seems to me that this is an issue that ,on the face of it, is pitched as left v right but once you drill down into it the situation changes and its clearly something else
Strangely enough, one of my favourite people to talk with is a committed ACT voter, and conservative Christian – her husband was a pastor. Like me, she has a few Aspergers traits, so we enter discussions knowing the other person is unlikely to change their view to align with our own, but we can both listen to each other and come away with another perspective that informs our own. IRL I know her quite well, and see that we share a lot of values, just disagree on how to get there. That base relationship, gives a context to discussion that's often missing online.
That said, I did watch. And like many others, question my own use of left and right as a political term in situations, because so many people have different ideas of what this means.
It'll take longer to write than it took to watch, if I go through it piece by piece. But some of the language used made me take note. He is right about biological sex, but not necessarily about responsibilities and privilege accorded to both sexes. I'd say there are roles within cultures that are delegated according to sex, but the majority of cultures puts the power hierachies in the hands of men. The "privileges" he seems to infer, is the 'privilege' of women having men protect them from the violence of other men. Every person has the choice to step in (eg. woman on the train), men will probably be more successful and less likely to receive harm, but that doesn't mean the responsibility lies only with men. The qualification that the left brought about this inaction, means that everyone on the train would be left. But that's unlikely to be true. It's a difficult thing for many people to know how to intervene without causing escalation, and I think that stops quite a few from action unfortunately.
I have been in situations where men have jumped into existing fights after a split second decision making process that gives them the insight into which side to join. The fact that this was a women is by-the-by for me. His view is a bit too "pretty little head" for me to be comfortable with.
I also think his reference to New York devolving back to a city where people are unsafe – as in the 70s – ignores the valid stories of those who have experienced it as unsafe during the last 50 years. I'm sure there would be thousands who live a life in one of the world's biggest cities of terror and vulnerability. The anonymity and disconnect that are part and parcel of large swathes of cities, are the breeding grounds for exploitation and violence unfettered by social contracts.
I watched Chapelle to see what the concern was. Thought that it was not transphobic, but then the term as it is being used has little meaning – as Andrew Klavan points out. It does, however, hold a lot of power in terms of derailing discourse, making policies and legislation, so cannot be ignored.
I do believe there are some manipulators out there, who don't have the well-being of transgender people at the heart of their actions or activism but are utilising the zeitgeist to create power networks for themselves as individuals. I also believe that there are many transgender people that are really discomforted by those that state that biological sex is real and immutable. I think this feeling of compromised 'safety' is a natural result of a series of beliefs that constantly require unrelenting external validation to hold together. It's not a good place to be, and it is not a good place for policy and legislation to aim at providing.
He returns back to the 'protection' theme, but women have been pointing out these inconsistencies since they became aware of them, and Chapelle is reiterating points already made. Women have also been threatened, and cancelled and suffered consequences but he makes no reference to them.
His take that it is the left's idea to silence truth, can be applied with the same generalisation to some of the right and other topics. But they are both inaccurate, I think. Whether you see yourself as left or right, there are always some on your side that will take the opportunity to reduce things down to a simplistic explanation. And life and people are more complicated than that.
Of course, I wonder sometimes about those men (and women) that consider themselves left, and yet have remained silent or joined the chorus of those who use the #NoDebate stance to silence others. Unfortunately, I think within all points of the political spectrum there are personality types that are represented, and we are seeing the effects of a shallow approach to the issue stifling discussion on the left. I don't know why.
The Twitter terms that block users because of misgendering has been in place for while, and has silenced many. But he only brings up men in positions of power, and Twitter is the one that is making these social judgements and should be challenged. His point about the conflation of sex and gender identity – although he calls it gender and gender – matches my belief that confusion about language and its use is causing unreasonable situations.
His explanation of sex based roles throughout history would take too long to dissemble into relevance…… so moving on.
Agree with his reference to Judith Butler work, and the imposition of abstract on the concrete, and the use of obfuscating language to deny interrogation of ideas.
His expectation of quality from the journalists shown is much higher than mine, but it would benefit us all if media for consumption was at a higher standard than it currently is.
His focus on the individual connection to biological sex is a different perspective to mine. My awareness of my female sex is one that encompasses commonalities with other women. His conclusion is about power, and influence I think, and the inability to regulate excessive power in the hands of a few.
Overall, I am aware that many supposed conservatives are speaking out, but they also often miss a lot of the issues related to this. His take is simplistic and quite paternalistic – "the protection of women".
The concerns of many women's groups (and some transgender individuals) regarding the impact of legislative and policy changes seems to be much more nuanced and considered.
As an example of how much could be considered in terms of the social and cultural impact of badly drafted legislative change (NOT transgender existence or presence), one woman's rant to police when she was reported by her ex-husband, now transwoman, for transphobic hate:
I am furious at our MP's for introducing legislation that has caused these legitimate concerns to be raised in other countries, and not taking the time to address those issues beforehand. They have knowingly created a similar situation in NZ, between groups that are most likely aligned in wanting people to be free to live lives without boundaries on safe personal expression.
That's my basic take on this video.
Now, did you read the article?
Wow Molly. Thanks for the critique of the video. You raise some excellent points.
I am just relieved to find anyone who calls out the erasure of women.
I also read the article about the Scottish women. It is unbelievably scarry what is happening in Scotland. I fear once the hate speech laws come in GC women will be harrased by the police like this. And I believe that when the Conversion Therapy Bill passes it will be similar. Parents and counsellors (who want be protected in the Act will be visited by the police and intimidated in this way…..
Its bloody frightening. Either take you child to gender affirming medical treatment and use their pro-nouns or receive a visit from the police.
Yes. Only scrolling through after did I realise how long it was… my family tend to get themselves a cup of tea and a comfortable seat before they ask for my opinion.
PR can now understand why that is.
I may have to reply properly tomorrow but thanks for the effort, I find it interesting how people converge especially with different voting habits
No worries. As mentioned I have a reputation at home for the long-windedness of my opinions.
https://archive.md/2021.11.01-003354/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-isnt-the-polices-job-to-stop-people-being-offended-xj5vz7k05#selection-787.0-793.239
i have posted this below, but it is more fitting here.
The recording of a NCHI "non-crime hate incident" on your police record resulting from a complaint is unconscionable. This will show up in any police checks for employment, housing, volunteering etc although no crime has been shown to be committed.
but that is the intent is it not, to scare people into submission.
Yes.
My take away on the article is it mostly affirms my ideas and mirrors whats happening in the activist trans community
Taking labels and applying them to oneself takes away from the people that actually have the condition
Like people saying they're gluten intolerant to be trendy which trivialises people with actual intolerances
It also makes me worry at the, seeming, explosion in the number of kids declaring they're trans and wanting sex change operations, is it the kids or is it the parents and the circles they move in
I liked what you wrote and it gave me, and others, food for thought
-it is the kids – puperty, growing up is hard. And for the girls i totally understand any girl that say wants to work in Stem or Tech and who decides that she can't be fucked with the inherent mysoginy and simply opts out via Trans and presents as man for the perceived advantages.
We should look at that as a society and ask ourselfs jus why Girls think that life as women is so miserable and so devoid of advantages as women that having a double masectomy and lifelong injections of testesterone is preferable.
-it is the parents – and in saying that we have now a bill that is being shoved through that can criminalize parents for not going with full affirmation should their kid declare themself trans. (See OZ).
– it is the parents – see the tragic story of a boy name Jazz Jennings who was transed by his parents at 18 month, was chemically castrated at age 10, then put on female hormones, then at barely 18 hat his 'neo vagina' fashioned out of his micro penis, this of course went all bad, and the kid has had three more ops down there (can you imagine the pain just to urinate and defecate), gained a hundred pounds, is highly depressed, but this it seems is better for the Mum and Dad then having a healthy son who may or may not present as gay, bisexual or heterosexual albeit a bit flamboyant and 'sassy'. TLC Channel. There is another kid, exactly the same, he is 9 going on to his chemical castration in seven miles boots.
– education system – any system that would cut out parents from how they deal with the child, how they would name him, his/her pronouns, etc in order to protect the child from the parents (wtf) is an environment that is grooming kids.
– online, it is very easy to be groomed into being transbaby by adults. It is as easy as is access to choke the women dead porn.
– watch tiktok if you have a good stomach
but don't worry, the Self ID bill will go through, and with it the clause about hate speech, and please feel free to check the link above from England where they now want a permanent records for people who have been apprehended for the non crime of opinionated speech.
Thanks PR. I thought she'd outlined her perspective well and provided great links for research and additional information.
The language distortion, in this case around 'intersex' is shown clearly as "Taking labels and applying them to oneself takes away from the people that actually have the condition".
Agree with Sabine on her responses to your questions.
The law in Scotland that initiated the police visit above was accompanied in 2019 by the release of this video:
https://youtu.be/wcr7hg8SJik
A strange intolerant view of tolerance.
(I have an ongoing disagreement with close friend with an English degree who finds it painful to listen to people who use swear words as adjectives or emphasis. As long as it's not used in a threatening or bullying manner it doesn't bother me.
My perspective is that some of the most horrific things you can hear are profanities without swear words:
"You are not to talk to your family again"
"I don't want you to go out with your friends anymore."
"This is our secret, and you can't tell anyone."…
Scottish Govt: "We believe in acceptance, and it’s time you accept that" has that same discord for me.)
Fascinating Molly re the Scottish add. No mention of mysogamy or we won't tolerate hating on women.
I'll let Stephen Fry talk about swearing:
It'd be so unfair to bring Stephen Fry into our discourse.
We'd watch, I'd win and then we'd have to look for another topic on which to disagree.
Hate Crime.
Report it to stop it.
Did this come from the Ministry of Love?
I agree with you PR. I have drawn that paralell with the trend of people declaring themselves gluten intolerant (whereas people who have coeliacs diesease are). However the GI people don't demand that we change our language or impose things (although I was organising a conference once and the hotel automatically provided vegan, gluten free, lactose free food, without having to ask. What a hassle for them I thought). Being gluten free also doesn't involve permanantly changing your body, as what is happening to very young kids.
Kids are now taught at school you can be born in the wrong body and that there is such a thing as gender identity (and given a huge range of gender identities to label themselves as). We are teaching kids this stuff.
What I still can't get my head around is how quickly everything is happening or was it building up slowly and then like the pressure on a weak point something broke?
Ghostbusters 2016?
Twitter/Social media?
JK Rowling going from darling of the left to being on their most hated list?
All of the above, none of the above?
It has happened in the blink of an eye almost PR. Others would probably be able to give you better info that I have on have on it..
I agree it isn't a left right thing. Many of the women who are GC are real lefties. The likes of Sandra Coney, Philida Bunkle, John Minto, Prue Hymen. The women in this group are the Grand Dames of Feminism in NZ.
I think there is a massive group think going on, education system, infiltration of parliament, the public service and the media. Its come from the universities and the gender theory one of the main proponants being Judith Butler an American Philosopher. Its also the no debate, your a transphobe if you disagree tactics used.
BTW if you have time, how did you become aware of this? No problem if you rather not say, but generally it flys below the radar.
A couple of things seemed to happen at once.
I've read the Harry Potter books and seen the movies, her world building is incredible and just a joy to read (just ignore the implications of some of the spells and potions) so I found it odd when JK Rowling announced that Dumbledore was gay given that there was no hint to it in the books, that she said Hermione could be black which means she doesn't know her own stories and then she started going on about refugees and I thought "oh ok" shes gone full woke then the terf thing happened…and JK Rowling found out you can never satisfy the woke mob
Then Fallon Fox happened, I'll link to this guy to explain my issues with this because hes a trainer, manager, cornerman, promoter, announcer, referee and former fighter in China so he really knows his stuff (great voice as well):
I happen to be conservative so for my fix on political and cultural matters I follow sites like The Daily Wire, Steven Crowder (I also happen to follow Joe Rogan and Russell Brand) and due to that I got a recommendation for Blaire White so I clicked on her and thought yep shes coming at this issues at a different angle (took me two videos to realise shes trans)
Next would be the pop culture aspect and there I follow Nerdrotic, The Critical Drinker, Keri Smith, Just Some Guy and (thanks youtube algorithms) they've lead me to others which is why I sometimes bang on about just how bad movies and tv are these days
Not to mention the treatment of Gina Carano, the idea that if you don't like something its because you're a misogynist, for example: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ghostbusters-the-bros-who-hate-it-and-the-art-of-modern-misogyny/2016/07/14/1dfba61a-49bd-11e6-bdb9-701687974517_story.html and https://www.theverge.com/2015/12/19/10626896/star-wars-the-force-awakens-rey-mary-sue-feminist yet the reality is these movies are bad, really bad and the main characters are bad but if you criticize its because you hate women
Finally just things happening all over the place that I simply don't understand and will never support like Don Brash being cancelled and free speech being curtailed for "safety", it sometimes feels like we're all in a race to see who can jump off the cliff first.
Strictly tongue-in-check answer to your question:
In a galaxy far, far away…
The closer parody comes to the truth the more uncomfortable it becomes and this is very uncomfortable
Good though, I liked it
Find it interesting 0.02% of pop. I'm trying to find where someone was turning that into 2.0% of pop just over the last few days,do you recall,because that's a big differance.
try this
https://archive.md/gi5NR
As has been noted it's used alot,I don't do twitting,I'd rather do knitting,nah just a wee word play,(I do run sewing machines though) no someone inflating on MSM just days ago which pricked my ears as I had seen and understood 0.02 % to be fact.
NZ MSM? They were saying 2%?
Was it this Herald article from last week, put up to acknowledge Intersex Awareness Day?
Intersex children in New Zealand are routinely undergoing unnecessary surgery – that needs to change
The initial link I posted deals with both the inflated estimates and the surgical claims made in the Herald.
Cheers but not that,It was a solid 2.%.(I've been alert to the 1.7-4 % for awhile )Haven't watched local TV news in a long while,I'm thinking RNZ or a link from here,maybe that BBC thing you put up last week.?
"Comments have been closed on this story" – says Stuff.
Tova to quit TV3 Newshub
Quite funny. The word "Tova" gets a Pavlovian reaction almost as foamy as "Jacinda" (except it's from right, left and centre). So the comments can only be imagined.
Sadly, her new role will probably involve more ranting than reporting. It's a shame, because she was a good reporter … when reporting, not reckoning.
"The only thing worse than that news would be Kim Hill retiring.
much better pay I expect.
So this Let's Get Wellington Moving set of options stands in stark relief to the Auckland light rail issue.
Wellington.Scoop » LGWM unveils options including extra tunnel, light rail or long buses
In Wellington the Mayor fronts it from the beginning, and sets out broad options for public consideration, and open up the housing intensification options right from the outset.
In Auckland, we don't have any idea of what Kainga Ora have in mind for several dozen urban hectares right along the line.
It's an open question whether the Auckland plan or the Wellington plan will happen fastest, or happen at all. Wellington's one simply integrates better with the city, from the outset.
Idiot from Steve Bannon's Counter Spin tries to disrupt PM's press conference. I hope this is accurately reported – he wasn't a random "heckler". Ironic that he was gently squashed with words, whereas in Trumpland he wouldn't get close without being shot.
'Trumpland', you mean Brandonland?
CounterSpin is definitely Trumpland.
Some background here
You really don't want these guys on your side.
Never heard of them and not going to check them out further
So the rude American prick was a foreign agitator? Looking at the body count USrwnjs have wrought by politicising core parts of the pandemic response, it’s much more dangerous than other ideologies we monitor and restrict.
Yes body count
Covid deaths per population:
US 1 in 451
Italy 1 in 457
UK 1 in 479
Spain 1 in 540
France 1 in 566
Austria 1 in 789
Germany 1 in 874
Turkey 1 in 1, 211
Canada 1 in 1, 305
India 1 in 3, 008
Australia 1 in 15, 494
New Zealand 1 in 175, 607
Heckler at PM in Northland
"It restarted a few minutes later, with local Labour MP Kelvin Davis saying that the incident was “the reason vaccine rates were so low in Northland.”
Ardern said it was important to get the protests in perspective, as it was just two people. Northland MP Willow-Jean Prime corrected her to say it was four people.
Northland has one of the lowest vaccine rates in the country."
Northland needs people to be vaccinated. Northland drags behind the rest of the country. Northland is primed to have Covid rip into communities.
Northland has many uninformed people. Northland has the usual percentage of idiots and the plain 'dumb' people.
What Northland doesn't need is some smartarse spreading false information and playing on ignorance.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59124427
passing of Aaron Beck, aged 100. Founder of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
implemented widely in the UK with good, evidence based outcomes.
Labour would have done well to copy this in order to improve mental health outcomes in NZ
Mandates work #eleventyseven
https://twitter.com/TristanSnell/status/1455258984772997120
lol
I understand the draft is pretty good at getting people to join the military as well.
It seems that some epidemiologists and government have differing levels of concern over rising infection rates.
This may be because of the use of different models – one using total infection rates and the other separating out the young unlikely to need hospitalisation.
The other factor is that of timing – at what point does vaccination levels have an impact on the r rate. Both NSW and Victoria reduced their levels by increasing rate of vaccination (and NSW did this after easing their lock down).
soon to come near us?
https://archive.md/2021.11.01-003354/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-isnt-the-polices-job-to-stop-people-being-offended-xj5vz7k05#selection-787.0-793.239
In the USA when the state is offended millions end up on watch lists.
This refers to a permanent police record. Not quite the same, just sayin.
The Americans involved have no right of appeal to being on the watch list permanently. That list has just grown exponentially since 9/11.
I am fairly sure the police here provide information for files of the SIS, despite no crimes being committed.
While it is a record kept by the UK police, it is not a past conviction that anyone has to disclose. And if this record is to become practice – for balance the UK police should also keep a record of the offended and identify which groups they belong to … .
do you really not understand the implication of a permanent police record and being on a watch list somewher. Besides this article is from England, not the US. Seriously dude.
The Police in England charges male rapists in skirts and wigs as women. I don't give them the benefit of doubt to keep good records.